yeah that was specifically aimed at the rhetoric used to venerate what i’d call art pop (everything from the beatles to fka twigs) above everything else. that approach gets hyped as “the best of both worlds” but often just dilutes the virtues of its influences. so for example with the beatles, i don’t think that “tomorrow never knows” hits it out of the park as a pop song or as a work of experimental tape music. whereas the moments where they brazenly smash pop and avant garde together (instead of trying to politely delegate between them) like “a day in the life” or “revolution 9” -> “good night” are very affecting to me.I'd like to read this one. I have my own thoughts on the importance of balancing the foreign & familiar, but am curious to hear a rebuttal.
funny how these takes can serve as time capsules. the catalyst for that was a college discussion of how to interpret The Shining, was it a commentary on this or that, and my discomfort with how much the whole thing felt like some kind of oblique IQ test that told you a lot more about the viewer than the film. actually the same concern gets expressed in the Neon Screams review, come to think of it, with the part about Rouge's Foam. i really, really want to believe that you don't NEED to be a clever interpreter to “get” any art. it can just open the door sometimes.I feel like your above argument about music criticism earning its way making the music a richer/more saturated medium answers this, unless I'm misunderstanding what you'd wanna say.
i think it’s because pop music is so deeply linked with youth culture. art music is different because the assumptions are reversed, people expect the artists to do their best work in middle and old age rather than youth. but since art music has sort of been replaced by pop music as far as what the elites champion, there used to be more cultural space for older artists to grow and develop but that’s eroded considerably. so things have almost gone in the opposite direction to the dynamic you mentioned. what do you think?Re: your "Burrowing" intro, and the burden (and advantage) of an archive—the average age of Nobel Prize winners in STEM subjects, when they start the work they win for, has gone up dramatically the past century. You don't see much progress in fields being made by 20- and 30-somethings any more, which was relatively common before. It'd be interesting to think why that isn't (or is it?) yet the case with progress pop music.
You once told me it was their finest hour as it was the blueprint for the sound of The Chemical Brothers.i don’t think that “tomorrow never knows” hits it out of the park as a pop song or as a work of experimental tape music